


Pyjamas

by Kittywitch



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen, Partial Nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-06 22:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3150683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittywitch/pseuds/Kittywitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Romana accidentally starts a tradition in which old companions provide new companions with pyjamas, a comb, and a tooth brush. Adric continues the tradition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pyjamas

“Though this way.” said Romana.

The timelady strode briskly through the gleaming white halls of the Tardis, a stack of objects in her arms. Behind her, a pubescent Alzarian craned his head around as he tried to count how many roundels and doors he passed on his way to wherever he was going. It wasn’t proving to be as consistent as he expected. Finally, Romana stopped in front of what was, so far as Adric could tell, a random door.

“I think this room’s empty.”

“Are there a lot of empty rooms on the Tardis?” asked Adric. “It’s quite a large ship, but it seems to be running with a skeleton crew.”

“It could be worse.” said Romana. “There’s a configuration of the console room that requires six pilots.”

“Six pilots‽” Adric repeated.

“And that’s why the Doctor doesn’t use that configuration. He’s used to working with a ‘skeleton crew’, as you described it. With this console room, he can fly the Tardis himself. Or, rather, I can program the coordinates and he can take off and feel very impressed with himself.”

“Do you think I could learn how to program the Tardis?”

“You’ll have to talk to the Doctor about that.” said Romana. “It’s not my ship and having a student driver does terrible things to your insurance rate.”

“I’m capable, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Adric insisted. “I’m a brilliant mathematician and they were training me to be crew on the Starliner…”

“We’ll talk about it in the morning, Adric.”

“It’s just that if I’m going to live here, I want to know more than just how to open the doors…”

“ _In the morning._ ” Romana insisted. “The Doctor still wants to take you back to Alazarius, you know.”

“I’ll convince him to let me stay.” Adric said confidently. Romana frowned thoughtfully.

“Well, while you stay, you can stay here.” She cocked her head at the door. Adric finally noticed that Romana’s arms were full and pushed the door open.

 

The room was as big as an entire family’s hut, with a bed in a corner, a bedtable with a jug of water in it, a chest of drawers, and not much else to distinguish it from any other room in the Tardis. The white roundels covered the walls like they did in the rest of the ship, making Adric wonder if he could find any star charts to hang over them. Or something. Something to make this one different.

“This is my room?” he asked, looking around.

“Unless you would like to sleep on the floor with K-9.” she offered.

“I’d rather not, I don’t think that machine cares for me very much.”

“It was a joke, Adric.” said Romana. “In any case, he charges at the foot of the Doctor’s bed. I don’t think the Doctor would remember to sleep at all if he didn’t need to charge the dog.”

 

Romana offered the boy the stack of objects she was carrying.

“If you’re going to be sleeping here, you’re going to need these.” she said crisply. “It’s what one does with refugees, or at least what one is supposed to do. I don’t know if the Doctor was going to remember to give these to you himself, he’s rather scatterbrained these days.”

“Grooming supplies.” Adric commented, examining the plastic instruments.

“That’s right. I thought the least you’d need is a toothbrush, a comb and a set of pyjamas.” The boy turned over the comb in his hand wondering if Romana found a way to generate the utensils or if the Tardis had a store of toothbrushes and combs somewhere. It was definitely moulded, not handmade, from bright orange plastic. The handle of the toothbrush was of the same material, and while he was more used to circular dental brushes, he could figure out from the name what it was for.

“That one’s the comb, it’s used-”

“I know what a comb is, Romana!” Adric interjected.

“You wouldn’t know it to look at you.” she replied dryly.

 

Adric scowled, but put the comb and toothbrush on his bedside table. The rest of the pile seemed to be a suit of some sort. It was made of a soft, flat-woven fabric Adric couldn’t identify and assumed was particular to E-Space. The material was striped cream and yellow, with buttons down the front, piping on the lapels, and a small pocket on the chest.

“Is this a uniform?” Adric asked, thumbing over the fabric.

“No, Adric.” Romana said crisply. “Those are pyjamas. You’ll need something to sleep in.” Adric blinked, clearly confused. He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

“But there’s a bed over there.”

“No, you put these on before you sleep.”

 

Adric looked confused.

 

“You do know what pyjamas are, don’t you Adric?”

“Of course I know what this is!” Adric exclaimed defensively. He held out the shirt at arm’s length.

“…it’s some sort of suit. The collar _is_ similar to the shirts you and the Doctor wear, I take it this is what I’m to wear when I’m serving on this ship.”

Romana folded her hands on her hips.

“Adric, the Doctor still thinks we should take you home. All we know right now is that you’re a boy and you’ll need to sleep. The pyjamas are for you to sleep in.”

Adric’s confusion turned to surprise. He looked at the pyjama shirt, then at Romana.

“Are you used to sleeping in your clothes?” Romana asked.

“No.” said Adric, examining the pyjama shirt. “I’m not used to wearing things to sleep at all.” Romana’s eyes widened and she coughed politely.

“Things are _clearly_ very different on Alzarius than they are on Gallifrey.” she said, shaking her head. She lay her hand over what remained of the pile and looked Adric in the eyes.

“The Doctor and I are from Gallifrey, and while there isn’t anything intrinsically wrong with it I think it would surprise us very much if we got up, half awake and there was a naked Alzarian boy wandering around the Tardis. So could you at least put them on if you need to get a drink when you’re trying to sleep?”

“I suppose so.” he shrugged.

“Thank you.” said Romana wearily.

 

Adric looked around the room once more, then carefully unpinned his badge, removed Varsh’s belt from around his waist, and placed them both on the bedside table. Romana was satisfied that he would settle in for the night, they’d certainly fed him enough for him to sleep well. She moved towards the door, but before she made it there, Adric asked a question.

 

“Are most Gallifreyans like you and the Doctor?” Adric asked. Romana grimaced thoughtfully.

“…well, we wear pyjamas.” she answered. “That’s about where the similarity ends.”

“Will I meet any?”

“Any other timelords?” asked Romana. “Not if we don’t make it out of E-Space.”

“Do you think we will?” Adric asked, untying his jerkin.

“Adric, I believe I’ve made my opinions on casual nudity clear.” Romana said severely, folding her arms.

“But do you?” he insisted. Romana began to suspect that the Doctor wouldn’t even notice if Adric ran to the loo in his wherewithal in the middle of the sleep cycle and she would sooner put up with that than this conversation. She sighed in frustration.

 

“If half of what the Doctor claims to have done is correct, then he’s gotten out of worse situations before.” Romana replied, hoping that Adric wouldn’t notice that she didn’t actually answer his question. He seemed to accept that answer, or at least he threw his jerkin on the bed and began work untying his tunic.

“Do you trust him, then?” he asked. Romana found several reasons to change the subject.

“I’ve no idea why this anecdote comes to mind, Adric, but I’m reminded of when I was about your age and was reprimanded for wearing wrist-length gloves under my robe instead of the full elbow length. Apparently, I caused a bit of a scandal.”

“Oh? Did you?” Adric asked absently, finally getting his tunic all the way open.

“I’m not entirely sure you’re quite as clever as you think you are.” she sighed. Adric looked up innocently, looking rather too young and rather too naked for the situation.

As irritated as she was with Adric for insisting on continuing a conversation when she would rather be preparing for bed herself, Romana couldn’t help but notice the boy was rather skinny under his tunic. That in itself was unusual, if the way he ate at dinner was any indication of his normal appetite. Either he didn’t get enough to eat on Alzarius and was devouring all the free food he could get his hands on or his metabolism was tremendous. Romana tended to suspect the latter, a high metabolism would account for his healing abilities.

 

“I don’t know what you mean, I’m not as clever as I think I am. I thought you were cleverer than most girls, but there you are, wittering on about gloves and fashion.”

“Adric,” Romana began, unintentionally finding all of her body language shift from flight lieutenant to angry matron. “The study of clothing is the study of culture, and if you had been listening more closely I think this conversation might have revealed a great deal more than you realise. Even if it didn’t, the mind should be open to everything, even if it seems trivial at the time. Still, I’m surprised at you. I would think that someone as fixated on social strata as you should be aware of the importance of pageantry. That’s certainly not been exclusive to women in any culture I’ve encountered. In fact, there’s no real association to women and clothing across all cultures, so it hardly seems worth mentioning at all.” Romana took a breath.

“…none of which is even related to my point in the first place!”

Adric blinked, having unexpectedly shifted from undressing to being dressed down.

“I’m sorry, Romana.” Adric said at length. He didn’t sound so much remorseful as ashamed that he’d been scolded.

 

“My point being, Gallifreyian ceremonial robes are quite extravagant. Very full, very long, with large collars and tight caps. Often long gloves as well, even in daywear it’s unusual to have more than your face exposed.”

“Is it cold on Gallifrey?”

“No. It’s actually quite warm outside the Citadel, but no one ever goes there.” Romana answered. She began to ask herself why she had told Adric goodnight so many times but she was still in his room. Adric nodded and shrugged off his tunic.

“So, are these Gallifreyian bedclothes?” he asked.

“No, the Doctor doesn’t keep any of those in the wardrobe.” Romana replied. “These are from Earth. Edwardian, if I’m not mistaken. They looked closest to your size.”

 

Adric held up the shirt in front of him, as if he were checking the size.

“Do you think it will be necessary to return to the same point in time and space where you first entered E-space in order to return to your universe?” he asked. Adric turned to Romana, wide eyes and the picture of innocence except for the fact he was naked from the waist up.

Romana was a rather good-natured timelady, but she’d explored an unmapped universe, fought vampires, and dealt with the Doctor today. She decided she was not going to add discussing temporal geography with a stripping fourteen year old.

“Goodnight, Adric.” Romana said with a tone of finality. Romana turned and made it just out of the door before Adric called again.

 “Romana!” Adric called at the timelady’s retreating back. She turned around.

 “Thank you.” he said. She smiled.

  “You’re welcome. Sleep well.”

 

 

 

 

Some time later, the boy found himself in front of a different door in the Tardis with a different stack of objects in his hands. Adric shifted the pile to one arm and knocked on the door. He then opened it and entered the room.

 

“You wait for the person inside to answer before you enter someone’s bedroom!” Tegan chided. “Were you raised in a barn?”

“If I had been, I’m sure we would have met before this.”

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean‽” Tegan demanded. The rate at which Nyssa must have moved in order to be sitting placidly on her bed reading one moment and standing between Tegan and Adric with an ameliorating expression the next shocked the both of them into silence.

 

Nyssa smiled politely at Adric and then looked at the objects in his arms.

“What is that you’re carrying, Adric?” she asked, hoping this would effectively change the subject.

“Uh—it’s for you.” he said awkwardly, trying to extend them towards her. “Since you’ll be staying on the Tardis for at least a little while, I’ve brought you bedclothes and grooming supplies.”

He wasn’t sure, but he thought that the nightgown might have been Romana’s. He knew that he had seen her in either that nightgown or a very similar one before she left the Tardis. But then, how could he have found that nightgown in the wardrobe if it had been in Romana’s bedroom when it was ejected? He wasn’t prepared to discount the chance that some of the items from the room might have appeared on other parts of the Tardis of their own accord. Enough of the corridors changed since he joined that he couldn’t be quite sure how the dimensions worked here, and the Doctor _still_ hadn’t explained.

Adric considered mentioning this but elected not to.

“I _think_ the Doctor’s supposed to do this, but he’s a little mixed up at the moment.”

Tegan laughed bitterly at this.

“That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one.” she rolled her eyes. She folded her arms and watched Adric hand the nightclothes to Nyssa, who thanked him and took them to her dresser.

 

“Well, where’s mine?” Tegan asked.

“I thought you weren’t staying.” Adric answered defensively.

“I’m clearly staying at least one night and if you think I’m sleeping in my uniform, you’re off your nut.”

“Why not? You do everything else in your uniform.”

“I did everything in my uniform because I never had a chance to change!” Tegan protested.

The stewardess touched her forehead in frustration.

“Just show me where you found that nightgown and I’ll find something for myself.” Tegan huffed. “We can share a room until I leave just fine, but I think that sharing one nightgown between us is going a bit far!”

“Alright!” Adric exclaimed, stepping away from her. “If I thought you were staying, I would have brought you something in the first place.”

“Anyway, it will give Nyssa time to change without us here.” Tegan pointed out, shoving Adric back out the door.

“What does that matter?” he asked indignantly.

“Oh, I see what it is then.” Tegan sneered. “There’s a reason you forgot about me, then? Not so much interested in getting us settled as getting Nyssa out of the velvet, you little pervert.”

“What are you talking about?” Adric asked. He looked at Nyssa for an explanation; she seemed to understand Tegan better than he did.

“It’s possible Tegan comes from a society with a nudity taboo.” Nyssa suggested.

“Oh.” said Adric, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Damn straight my society has a nudity taboo!” Tegan squawked. “Particularly regarding little boys watching women change their clothes!”

“I’m not a little boy, and I wasn’t going to watch you change your clothes!” Adric protested indignantly.

“You wouldn’t have a chance.” Tegan frowned. She put a hand on either of Adric’s shoulders and started to lead him out of the room.

“Do Trakkens have a nudity taboo?” Adric asked with an air of genuine interest, turning his head back to face Nyssa. Tegan frogmarched him out of their bedroom.

“Move!”

**Author's Note:**

> I headcanon both Adric and the fourth Doctor as being much more relaxed towards nudity than most people who watch Doctor Who.


End file.
